Grim's Hall

Suicide Bomber Hamas?

National Review's Jed Babbin reports, based on a confidential source, that he believes the suicide bomber who attacked the 3rd Infantry Division checkpoint was Hamas. The bomber had earlier been claimed as an Iraqi army officer. Mr. Babbin is greatly worried about the possibility. He cites the British and Israeli examples of failing to uproot these terrorists as reason to believe we are entering an ugly, and possibly permanent, state of affairs.

Even if the report is true, we'll have to see. Iraq isn't like Israel or Ireland. Both Ireland and Israel have large communities of people with what amount to pre-national, ethnic claims to unity with the terrorists. Hamas is not Iraqi. If they can find support among the Shiites of Basra, they may be able to carry on the kind of campaign the PIRA or PLO have: but they will need that support, at the street level, to gain a foothold and keep it. The British report that the citizens of Basra are currently informing on Baath party members. If we deal well and honorably with them, once they are free of the tyranny of the state, it seems unlikely to me that they would quickly seek and support new tyrants.